Editing Li Hongzhang (section)

==Legacy and assessment==
[[File:Grant and Hongzhang, 1879.jpg|thumb|Li (right) photographed with former American president [[Ulysses S. Grant]], 1879, by [[Liang Shitai]]]]
[[File:2014-09-01 Rikosho Way in Shimonoseki, Japan.jpg|thumb|Rikōshō Way in Shimonoseki, Japan]]
Li left a word as his self-evaluation: "To know me and judge me is a task for the next millennium" ({{lang|zh-hant|知我罪我，付之千載}}).

Li was regarded favourably in the United States, owing to his reputation for welcoming foreign influence and his 1896 visit to the country. He was wrongly credited with inventing the [[American Chinese cuisine|American Chinese dish]] [[chop suey]] during the visit. In 1913, [[William Francis Mannix]] wrote and published a fabricated ''[[Memoirs of Li Hung Chang]]''<ref>{{cite book|last=Mannix|first=William Francis|title=Memoirs of Li Hung Chang|location=Boston, New York|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|year=1923|edition=reprinted}}</ref> which received widespread praise before being exposed as a forgery in 1923.<ref name="auto2">{{cite book|last1=Chu|first1=Samuel C.|last2=Liu|first2=Kwang-Ching|title=Li Hung-Chang and China's Early Modernization|location=Armonk, New York|publisher=M. E. Sharpe|year=1994|page=286}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Hess|first=Albert G.|chapter=The 'Memoirs' of Li Hung-chang: The story of a non-translation|editor=George Kao|title=The Translation of Things Past: Chinese History and Historiography|location=Hong Kong|publisher=The Chinese University Press|year=1982|pages=155–67}}</ref>

His biographer William J. Hail argued that Li "did perhaps all he could for a land where the conservatism of the people, a reactionary officialdom, and unrestrained international rivalry made each step forward a matter of great difficulty," and praised him as "always progressive, yet patient and conciliatory, it was his fate to bear blame for failures which might have been avoided if he had had his way."{{sfn|Hail|1943}} The leader of China's [[New Culture Movement]], [[Hu Shih]], was also sympathetic, remarking that if Li had been allowed the opportunity, his achievements for China might have equalled the achievements of his Japanese counterpart, [[Itō Hirobumi]], at the 1895 [[Treaty of Shimonoseki]].

Chinese nationalists criticised Li's relations with the Western powers and Japan. [[Liang Qichao]]'s 1902 biography of Li blamed him for China's woes and set the tone for further castigation. In Liang's view, Li was the chief culprit for the Self-Strengthening Movement, which these nationalists condemned for collaborating with the European imperialists and suppressing the masses. Liang Qichao's son, [[Liang Sicheng]], denounced Li in 1951 for "selling out" the country.<ref name="auto2"/> History textbooks in the People's Republic of China labelled Li as a "[[Chinese historiography#Marxism|feudalist]]" and a traitor to the Chinese people.<ref>{{cite book|last=Feuerwerker|first=Albert|title=History in Communist China|location=Cambridge, MA|publisher=MIT Press|year=1968|page=235}}</ref> It was not until the 1980s that mainland historians began a serious debate of the sort which had been taking place in Taiwan.

===Bribery controversy===
[[Sergei Witte]] dismissed some rumours during Li's visit to Europe that Li was [[Bribery|bribed]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/memoirsofcountwi00wittuoft|title=The memoirs of Count Witte|first1=Sergei IUl'evich|last1=Witte|first2=Avrahm|last2=Yarmolinsky|date=January 30, 2018|publisher=Garden City, N.Y. Doubleday, Page|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> However, according to the Russian account, Li had urged the Russian government to build a three-million rubles "Li Hongzhang Foundation" to make Li and Zhang Yinheng to support the [[Li-Lobanov Treaty|Sino-Russia railway treaty]] and [[Russia-Qing Convention|Lushun-Dalian Rent Treaty]], and a payment of 0.5 million rubles was confirmed.<ref>《俄国的远东政策--1881~1904》 （商务印书馆 1977）</ref> Ma Wenzhong questioned whether the Russian account was reliable.<ref>《旅大租借交涉中李鸿章、张荫桓的“受贿”问题 （《学术界》2003年第2期）</ref>